by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members began their Oct. 3 meeting with a public hearing that drew nine residents to learn about three Nov. 5 local referendum questions.

The first question asks residents to approve matching funds to be available if the town receives grants to help replace the Dunlap Bridge on Mill Hill Road. Specifically, if voters approve it, select board members will be allowed to appropriate $360,000 from TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money or from the town’s undesignated fund (surplus), as they choose.

The second question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro TIF program to allow TIF money to fund “environmental improvement projects” in town.

As Town Manager Aaron Miller explained, the two questions are related. Amending the TIF document under the second question will allow use of TIF money for the Dunlap Bridge under the first question.

Select board member Chris French talked about three alternative bridge plans. The currently preferred option, dependent on more grant money, would cost a total of $1.8 million, of which the town would pay $360,000, he said.

Last summer, Vassalboro received a $200,000 Municipal Stream Crossing Grant to help with the bridge. An application for a larger grant has been filed and is awaiting approval or rejection.

Resident Douglas Phillips asked why the proposed TIF amendment is limited to environmental improvements. Miller replied that authority to use the money for the Dunlap Bridge is needed urgently, because the sructure is in such poor shape. A more comprehensive overhaul of the TIF program would take “a tremendous amount of time.”

Holly Weidner asked for a clearer explanation of local funding. Board members and Miller said they are working on explanatory background documents, and discussed ways of making it easy for residents to obtain them before Nov. 5.

During previous discussions, and on Oct. 3, board members emphasized that approving the bridge funding is appropriating money the town already has, not asking taxpayers for more money.

The third ballot question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter, specifically how the district’s trustees are chosen, their organization and their duties and responsibilities. There were no comments on this question. Copies of the proposed changes are attached to the local ballot and available from Town Clerk Cathy Coyne.

During the meeting that followed the hearing, select board members talked briefly about the bridge. Board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico endorsed French’s statement at the Sept. 19 board meeting: board members should postpone further action until they hear from voters on Nov. 5.

Board members made three unanimous decisions.

— They accepted the lower of two prices for a new pole barn for the public works department, $141,140 from All Season Home Improvements, of Augusta. Miller said, in response to concerns about a nearby wetland, that someone from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had visited the site. Work is not scheduled to start for six to eight months.
— They prepared an instruction for K & K Land Surveyors, of Oakland, expected next week to survey the tax-acquired property on Lombard Dam Road adjoining the transfer station. Board members want them to draw a lot line 25-feet from the property’s westernmost building, unless a well or other structure is in the way. The goal is to maximize the transfer station lot to allow for future expansion.
— They appointed Cara Kent a new member of the Vassalboro Cemetery Committee.

The next Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Oct. 17.

by Mary Grow

Two Vassalboro Public Library trustees, board President Elizabeth McMahon and secretary Valerie Sugden, summarized library progress and plans for town select board members at the Sept. 19 select board meeting.

They said recent changes include expanded hours – the library is open six days a week, all but Sundays – and conversion of two former storage rooms to study and meeting rooms. The rooms are used by individuals for activities including job searches and interviews and by groups for meetings (including town committees occasionally, Town Manager Aaron Miller said).

The library works cooperatively with Vassalboro Community School, the town recreation program and other local organizations to present programs and activities.

The state interlibrary loan system, now back in business after a shutdown to change vendors, is well used.

McMahon said the library’s summer reading program and fund-raising book and bake sale were successful. Pending fund-raisers this fall are a play in October and, in November, a silent auction and pre-Thanksgiving pie sale.

The play, she explained, is a comedy written by Canadian playwright Laura Teasdale, supported by Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny, specifically for public libraries. The script can be adjusted to add references to each local town.

Vassalboro’s presentations will be Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., and Oct. 20, at 2 p.m., at the Grange Hall, in East Vassalboro. Refreshments will be on sale. More information is available on the library website, vassalboro.lib.me.us.

The next major project, Sugden said, is installing heat pumps. Since the library is a non-profit organization, it falls into neither of the categories (residence and business) eligible for state rebates, so state funding is uncertain.

Library fund-raising will pay some of the costs; the library is likely to request town ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. Miller said select board members will probably talk about remaining ARPA money at their Oct. 3 meeting and urged Sugden and McMahon to get a library request in promptly.

The heat pumps would be especially useful in reducing summer heat and humidity, which are hard on staff and on books, McMahon said.

The other major topic at the Sept. 19 select board meeting was, again, the Dunlap Bridge over Seven-Mile Stream, on Mill Hill Road. The deteriorating culvert has led to preliminary plans for a replacement and a search for grant funding to pay for it.

Miller said Vassalboro public works crew members cleared debris and did some repairs, hoping to prolong the culvert’s life. He said the town’s chosen engineer, Eric Caldwerwood, of Calderwood Engineering, is more concerned about the destructive potential of a major rainstorm than about traffic over the bridge.

Board members again discussed various alternatives. Chris French, acting chairman in Frederick Denico, Jr.’s, absence, said while he sympathized with the three families and the gravel pit owner who depend on the bridge, he saw no way to act until after Nov. 5.

The first of three local referendum questions on Vassalboro’s Nov. 5 ballot asks if voters will authorize using TIF (Tax Increment Financing) or undesignated fund balance (formerly called surplus) money to match a grant intended to help fund a new bridge.

Board member Michael Poulin agreed the voters’ decision needs to come first. Further discussion of the Dunlap bridge was tabled to the first select board meeting after Nov. 5 (currently scheduled for Nov. 14).

The Sept. 19 meeting began with the annual hearing on state-proposed amendments to local general assistance ordinances. There were no public comments; French closed the hearing and he and Poulin accepted the changes.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 3. It will be preceded by a public hearing on the three Nov. 5 local referendum questions, which are on the town website, vassalboro.net, under the heading on the main page “NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING 10/3/24.”